Ventura/Later Career
=Growing on the Independence= ]] Lily, Quinn, and Tildaen cooled their heels at Starbase 118 for a week or two while waiting for the ''Independence to arrive. Towards the end of their stay, Lily is approached by a messenger who says he's delivering Nick's tidings. The letter he delivers explains that Starfleet's recalled Nick even further, all the way back to Jupiter Station in the Sol System, to head the prestigious base's Experimental Subspace Theory division. The promotion, the letter says, came as a result of a breakthrough in Nick's subspace bubble research, a breakthrough which allowed the rescue of the Kestrel and its only surviving crew member, Doctor Hayden Reynolds. The letter ends with a postscript: The letter-bringer is Hayden himself. Hayden's chosen to throw himself right back into Starfleet life. He had been chief medical officer on the Kestrel, but he doesn't feel quite up for another chief position. However, he is ready to assist Lily; she'll be starting as CMO from scratch, and they can likely help each other adjust to the new vessel. Lily's first month and a half aboard the Independence was anything but smooth. Everyone she transferred with - Quinn and Hayden Reynolds, as well as Tildaen Ethelwin - is having trouble adjusting, with Ethelwin even going so far as to request transfer. Meanwhile, the Reynoldses are both moody and withdrawn, which is little help to Lily, who continued to struggle with her position and the memories of the Kojatak massacre. Eventually, Lily nearly slept through a multiple triage disaster. Disgusted with herself, she went to the Independence's CO, Rear Admiral Jessa Anassasi, and requested that she be transferred out of the CMO position, for both her and her patients' sakes. Anassasi reminded her that there were still no command positions available. Lily, however, had a plan: the Independence had no full time, senior counselor, so she requested and was granted that position. During her months as CMO, Lily spent a lot of time with both of the Reynoldses, and found herself growing a lot closer to both. Her relationship with Hayden quickly turned serious, though neither party really questioned whether it was wise, when they were still obviously using each other as emotional props. The relationship proceeded quickly and efficiently, providing both with the contact they wanted and needed. Lily's first mission as counselor found her assigned to an away team under Lieutenant Commander Sidney Riley, the Independence's first officer. Commander Riley led her team to Traides-Epsilon IV, a mining colony inhabited by a variety of flotsam from the Ithassa Region, including Grendellai, Tzenkethi, Constellationites, F.T.U. members, and former prisoners of the Gorn. Upon investigation, the crew discovered that the colony was suffering from an outbreak of sarcopic mites. A triage center was quickly established and aid was offered. Things quickly went south when a bomb exploded near the triage center, seriously wounding several members of the away team and stranding more. Lily found herself trapped with a badly hurt Quinn Reynolds, with no way to call for help and only limited medical equipment and experience. Lily did what she could for Quinn, but in the end, Quinn ended up saving herself. By entering into a semi-unconscious dreamlike state, Quinn was able to preserve her body functions and keep herself alive. However, use of the state had an unseen side effect: Lily who was physically and mentally close to her friend at the time, had her consciousness vacuumed up by Quinn's panicking mind. Once inside her friend's dreams, Lily was able to interact but not breakout; the subconscious Quinn, appearing to Lily in several guises, had no idea either, and eventually Lily was able to extricate herself through sheer willpower. Determined to get her friend to safety, Lily overlooked basic medical regulations and picked up Quinn, dead set on carrying her back to the shuttle. Both women were discovered en route and helped back to the shuttle, after which the entire team was evacuated from the colony. The Independence's crew departed the Traides-Epsilon system, making their way to the reestablished Wheeler Colony to rendezvous with the USS Ronin and USS Ursa Major, two of the other few Federation starships present in the Ithassa region. The three ships' crews enjoyed some leave time, visiting and touring the other vessels and ultimately attending a large party in the Ursa Major's lounge. However, the biggest surprise for Lily came just before that party, when Hayden took her aside and asked her to marry him. They'd been together for half a year and Lily, very much in the moment, agreed. The first person she tells is Quinn, for whom the party is a first venture outside of Sickbay since the mission to TE-IV. Quinn isn't entirely happy at the news, but Lily, still riding her own euphoric wave, barely notices. Still smarting from its near-destruction the previous year, the command staff of the Wheeler Colony invites the three ships' COs down to the surface. Each CO brings a couple of officers - in the Independence's case, new chief medical officer Vojana Minerva Satscher and chief of security David Cody. While down on the planet, an unexplained spatial rip opens up in orbit and sweeps the three Starfleet ships inside. All three are thrown out to the galactic barrier, where they find themselves floating in space, lost and without power. The power loss is temporary, but the ships' problems aren't, especially the Independence's - the crew restarts the ship and finds a non-humanoid, plasma-based alien running amok on the ship. All attempts to communicate with the alien are in vain, as are the subsequent attempts to remove it by force. Lieutenant Commander Sidney Riley takes acting command of the Independence and names Lily her acting first officer. Meanwhile, in Sickbay, Hayden is the ranking medical officer, and so takes charge down there. The first order of business is the alien, which Sidney assigns Lily to oversee. Meanwhile, she and the bridge crew are working on discovering how the ship was thrown so far out, and how they can get back. The Ursa Major and Ronin, in the meantime, have picked up an incoming armada of alien ships. Whether they are related to the Independence's stowaway or not remained unknown, but the armada made its intentions very clear: Submit, or be destroyed. Lily took her search for the alien to Engineering, where Chief Engineer Quinn was reporting some strange readings. Thanks to some unusual scans, the team discovered that the alien was in Engineering - it was hiding in the warp core itself. Quinn ascertains that the alien is after the plasma in the warp core, as it needed the energized plasma to "re-energize" itself. Seeing no other alternative, Lily okays the experimental procedure; although Quinn believes it will work, failure to do so will result in a warp core breach and the probably destruction of the ship. The plan works and the alien is re-energize just as the armada arrives. The alien uses its newfound power and freedom to send all three Starfleet ships hurtling across the galaxy, all the way back to the Wheeler colony. After picking up Admiral Anassasi and the other officers, the Independence sets a course for Deep Space 17 and some leave time before embarking on their next mission. Once there, Lily and Hayden are able to discuss their engagement and ensuing wedding in-depth ... or so Lily would like. However, Hayden decided to explore the base without her, but with some of his friends from Sickbay, nurses Elizabeth Hathaway and T'Ren. Upon his return, Lily confronted him, and he admitted that while he still wanted a wedding, the idea of a tangible marriage date frightened him. For the time being, the two remained, as Lily put it, engaged without parole. The Independence set course for its next mission in the Igloo Cluster after only two days' leave time. En route, Admiral Anassasi received a startling rumor from the Snow-on-the-Hilltop system, and decided that, while the Independence couldn't delay its mission, another crew could explore the new problem. The USS Tiger was dispatched with a skeleton crew from Deep Space 17, and the newly-promoted Commander Riley took command. Both Lily and Hayden were ordered to transfer over to the Tiger, as well, and the transfer brought Lily a promotion back to first officer. =The Tiger's Command Track= ]] The ''USS Tiger launched on May 7, 2385 to investigate a distress call from the Constellationites on Klakkr's Drift in the Snow-on-the-Hilltop system. They reported that a vessel of unknown provenance had been attacking ships and planets in the system. On further analysis the ship appeared to be of Reaper origin, but with a miscellany of additional technology from various Alpha and Beta Quadrant species. There were also reports of a mysterious station which seems to be the base for the strange ship. As the Tiger neared Snow-on-the-Hilltop, they received another distress call from Klakkr's Drift, and arrived to find three Constellationite cargo ships under attack by the mysterious ship. The frigate-class vessel retreated when the Tiger arrived, leaving one ship destroyed and one in eminent danger of destruction. Lily quickly took triage teams to Cargo Bay 3; the medical teams included Hayden as field surgeon and Galvin Prox as the new ship's CMO. Under the crew's ministrations, all the surviving Constellationites recovered. Lily interviewed the most senior among them, Second Helper Ulviene, who would only allude to the mysterious ship and station, though he did confirm that the Constellationites also believed that both belonged to the Reapers. After dropping off the surviving Constellationites, the Tiger received another distress call - this time, from the mysterious frigate itself. En route to the Reaper station, the Tiger began to experience strange systems failures and power losses. The problems were eventually tracked to two unknown devices placed near Engineering, and with much of the engineering staff in Sickbay following the devices' subsequent detonation, it was left to the rest of the crew to repair the damage. Lily took temporary command of Engineering, though she left it to Lieutenant Salak to actually effect the repairs. The Reapers, in the person of Dodhun, Third of the Father, requested an audience with Commander Riley. Riley offered to host but upon beaming over, the Reapers revealed that diplomacy was the last thing on their minds. Commander Riley and her team were imprisoned in the brig, and while security raced to release them, the Tiger itself was wracked by escalating problems - sensor blackouts, more systems failures, and finally the collapse of the entire shield grid. Lily took command and sealed off the bridge at the same time that Engineering fell to the Reapers. In an attempt to get a signal to Commander Riley's captured group and, hopefully, to another Starfleet vessel, Lily ordered Lieutenant Dickens, chief tactical officer, to launch from the Tiger in the shuttlecraft ''Eagle''. Lily is forced to wait like the captain of a sinking ship as the Reapers reportedly tore up through the Tiger towards the bridge. She and the remaining bridge crew threw up defense after defense, but it all came to nothing - the Reapers seemed to jump through force fields, shift around phasers, and break into every core system under lockdown. However, Lieutenant Dickens was able to transport Commander Riley's team to the safety of his shuttle and then back to the Tiger, where they trapped the Reapers' leader in a turboshaft and made their way to the bridge. Lily, fearing Riley's team to be the Reapers, decided on a final drastic measure: If they couldn't keep their ship, then the Reapers couldn't have it, either. She ordered a cold shutdown, hoping that it would force the Reapers to confront and discuss their attempted takeover. Faced with the embarrassment of shutting down her CO's ship, Lily immediately offered to go below, even though the rest of the ship was still overrun by Reapers, and activate a portable generator to maintain life support. Commander Riley agreed, and Lily, along with chief science officer Clack and security officer Storos, headed below to find the generator. Activating the generator went as planned; however, as soon as the activation was complete, the group was attacked by Reapers. Lily and Storos managed to hold off the group until power came back on ... but, as Lieutenant Clack reported, his generator was not enough to do so much. As it turned out, the Reapers had been enslaving a native race, the Avor, and using them to power their technology. However, the Avor found that they enjoyed the technology aboard the Tiger - specifically, the bioneural circuitry, which reminded them of their home realm - better, and so rebelled against the Reapers. The Reapers, with their failing technology and failed takeover, found themselves in even further: Their station was losing its grip on reality, and falling back into the alternate dimension it had emerged from. Unfortunately for the Reapers, they were also being dimensionally dragged, resulting in their expulsion and disappearance from the Tiger. The Reapers' departure left the Tiger in shambles. Sickbay was overloaded, with all of its major physicians, including Hayden, unconscious or incapacitated. The crew limped the ship back to Deep Space 17, where they put in for repairs and recuperation. Lily's hardest duty, en route, was delivering the casualty list to Sidney, and then writing the letters to their families. Aboard the station, Lily shut herself away in a dark depression. Initially, she'd wanted to explore the station with Hayden, but when he went out with Ellie Hathaway and T'Ren without telling her, she slumped deeper. Even when it came time for the Tiger's promotion ceremony, she could barely dig herself out of her deep depression to attend ... and, then, she received word that Hayden was one of those promoted, and that he was being reassigned. She put in an empty-hearted appearance at the ceremony and intended to retire directly after, but she was stopped by CMO Vojana Satscher, Hayden's former supervisor. Although she didn't know everything on Lily's mind, she knew enough, and she told Lily that if she didn't go after him, she'd regret it. Lily went. She found Hayden deep in his new ship, Antares, about to depart, and asked him not to go, to talk to her, to think about their future. He agreed to delay and came with her back to the station, where she decided that a ceremony full of pomp wasn't necessary. They were married that night. Although originally a part of the Tiger's next mission - she attended the briefings and led a team of researchers - Lily received some unexpected medical news that sent her back towards the Federation interior: She was pregnant. A small Starfleet vessel ferried Lily and Marcus Dickens, who was taking a leave of absence, back to Deep Space 17. From there, Lily boarded Hayden's Antares for a ride to Starbase 118. Category:Ventura